


The Everyday Life of the Golden Deer Professor

by WanderingFanfics



Series: Everyday Life [1]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Academy Drama, Constant Game of Who Likes Who, Evolves into Post Academy Drama, Feeding Strays, Fishing, Gardening, Gen, Newsflash Everyone Likes Each Other Its Going to be a Mess, Slice of Life, Young People Who Won't Stop Gossiping, teatime
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:22:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22364830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WanderingFanfics/pseuds/WanderingFanfics
Summary: While boring lectures, bloody battles and unavoidable war and strife looms above the clouds, people still go through their daily routines.  As time passes by Byleth slowly learns what her routines are.Byleth has never experienced boredom, since that would require her to have felt excitement to contrast that boredom.  Yet now, even as these curious and frightening emotions flow through her, she's not worried about feeling the mundane on her days off.  Not while she's a part of the Golden Deer, who always find ways to entertain, even in the most difficult times.
Series: Everyday Life [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1609888
Kudos: 5





	The Everyday Life of the Golden Deer Professor

It is the 27th day of the Great Tree Moon, five days after she arrived at Garreg Mach Monastery. In these five days she still can't deduce why she's here. One moment she was on a regular mission as a mercenary with her father Jeralt, the next moment she was a teacher for a military academy she's never heard of, controlled by a church she has little experience with. When she arrived she was only told that she would teach, and that she was expected to choose a house. 

Her choices were between a house led by a polite young man who on the surface seems nice but may have darker intentions, a house led by a sharp young woman who seems to hold greater ambition than Byleth could comprehend, and a curious fellow who's smile doesn't reach his eyes, leaving his true intentions cleanly hidden. When she looked at the curious fellow, who goes by the name Claude, something in her wanted to know more about him. For once, she felt curious about something, and that curiosity is what pulled her toward his house. So she chose him, leader of the Golden Deer. It seems this curiosity is reciprocated, since in these five days Claude has not tired of trying to gain information about her. Unfortunately, while she wants to give Claude more interesting information about her, she doesn't think herself interesting at all, and is not one for conversation. And Claude is not one who gives up information on himself easily, so any time Byleth questions Claude he's able to dance around her inexperience with communicating.

_"Perhaps he'd be more willing to answer questions if you learned to not stare at others like a dead fish. Now get up. You have to do something other than lying there in bed like a corpse."_

To top it off, Byleth is starting to hear a voice in the back of her mind. In her first meeting with Claude and the other leaders she almost died protecting them if not for this voice. Sothis. That was her name. She is able to turn the hands of time, allowing her to prevent her own untimely death. Since that night she hears the girl's voice infrequently. 

_"Hah! You are lucky to be able to hear me at all, what with that blank head of yours! Do you know how exhausting it is to get you to hear me!? Now get up! The morning has past and you still need to greet your new students. I will not speak again today."_

She can hear the girls yawn, which usually indicates that Sothis won't speak again for awhile. With the girl's push to get her to move Byleth finally removes herself from her comfortable bed. She's not one to like most things, nor dislike most things for that matter, but she can at the very least appreciate a nice bed. As she stretches she hears a knock at her door.

"Yoohoo~ Knock knock professor~! It's me, Hilda!"

Well this is new. Usually its Claude who knocks at her door. Byleth ceases her stretching, quickly changes into the uniform given to her by the faculty committee, and opens the door for one of her new students. Remembering Sothis' advice she mumbles, "Good Morning."

"Good morning~" There Hilda was, with Marianne, another one of her new students, in tow. 

"Um, its actually noon.." Marianne fumbles. If not for Byleth's good hearing she may not have been able to hear it.

"Noon, shmoon, its still early in the day." Hilda has her arm hooked around Marianne's. Marianne doesn't look like she wants to talk to anyone, or to talk at all, but it seems that Hilda's determined to make friends with her. "Anyway its been a few days since you joined our team professor! Why don't you have lunch with us?"

Aside from a nod and a brief, "Sure" from Byleth, she has no reaction. This isn't unusual for Byleth, but her apparent stoic nature tends to leave others with the responsibility to keep the mood. 

Luckily Hilda's a professional at keeping up a good mood, so when she hears Byleth's tepid agreement she enthusiastically goes, "That's great! You're going to love what's on today's menu. Oh don't worry, the food here is good at its worst, but even the best food always tastes better with company. C'mon." Without waiting Hilda walks toward the cafeteria, tugging the quiet blue-haired girl along with her. Byleth follows behind.

* * *

As Hilda enters the dining hall with two quiet girls in tow Byleth can already hear Raphael eating at the other end of the room. From their brief meeting she can already tell Raphael is a loud and boisterous eater, oftentimes not waiting to swallow food before crying out, "This is delicious!" This reminds Byleth of some of Jeralt's friends who joined them in their mercenary work. If she were more emotionally aware she might think that Raphael brings up nostalgic feelings. Right now though all she can think of is how he fares on battle if he's as boisterous in troubled situations as he is in peaceful ones.

"Ugh, Raphael...oh and there's Claude. Wait, is Claude giving Raphael bones!?" As Hilda says this Raphael snaps a bone apart with his teeth. Marianne looks amazed. Hilda looks disgusted. Byleth, as always, is neutral.

"Uh he's going to break his own teeth...anyway professor let's sit waaaay over there where it's...mostly quiet." Hilda motions toward a table on the opposite side of where Claude and Raphael are sitting. When they reach the table Hilda gently pushes Marianne to sit down while Hilda sits next to her. "Alright, since this is your first time eating with us, I'll let you pick you the food! I'm sure whatever you give us will be great~"

"..." As Byleth heads toward the place where she picks up the food Claude and Raphael stand up. Raphael, seeing his new professor looking at the food prepared for today, decides to take the opportunity to grab more food while chatting with her. 

"Good morning professor," Raphael says vigorously. 

"Its noon," Byleth replies, still looking at the various bowls. She has no particular favorites when it comes to food, so she doesn't know which meals are the best. 

"Oh is it already noon? Man, time flies!" Raphael laughs. He grabs a plate and starts dumping food onto it without any particular care for organization. "So, how's the monastery treating you? The food's great right? I haven't had food this good in forever!"

"..."

"...What, are you having a hard time picking? Just pick all of them! Or you can ask the head chef for the special of the day. She's really nice." Raphael sets his now heavy plate aside and grabs another plate and starts filling it up in a similar manner. "Here, try them all!"

"...I'm actually supposed to pick up food for Hilda and Marianne."

Raphael doesn't stop filling the plate. "Great! I never see Marianne eat here. Here, while I'm filling yours you can fill theirs! I don't know them too well, but I bet you I can guess their favorite food!" And so Byleth began filling two plates while Raphael describes what kinds of food Marianne and Hilda seem to enjoy. This boy might only focus on two things, food and muscle, but Byleth can tell that Raphael pays attention to his new classmates.

Claude, meanwhile, takes the opportunity to walk towards Hilda and Marianne. Hilda has already noticed Raphael took the liberty of "helping" Byleth fill their plates, and as the pile of food gets bigger and bigger her face seems to turn whiter and whiter. "Oh, Goddess what have I done?"

Claude takes no pity on her, instead pretending to scold her use of the goddess's name. "Now, now, one cannot use the good and graceful goddess's name simply because tricking someone else to do work for you backfires. What would the fair and virtuous archbishop think?" Claude laughs as he sees his professor elegantly balancing two plates at once while still filling it. The food on each one was starting to reach her shoulders with Raphael's guidance. "And why are you so upset? Look how much Teach cares for you already! You don't have to worry about fighting in the mock battle on an empty stomach, that's for certain."

"Oh shut up," Hilda huffs. "There's no way a delicate flower like me's going to participate in some mock battle!"

Claude nods solemnly. "Ah, yes you are the most delicate of flowers. Which is why you need to eat lots and lots so you can grow big and strong! Why be a delicate flower when you can become a beautiful cactus?"

"..." Hilda's glare does nothing to sway Claude's smile. "Why did you want me to bring her out again?"

"Just thought to try out a different approach." Claude doesn't elaborate any further. "Anyway after she eats tell her to check out the greenhouse."

"Are you going to show her the poisonous plants?"

"You know I will," Claude winks.

Hilda rolls her eyes. "I'm sure she'll loooove that."

"You think so? That is so encouraging of you to say! See you later." With that Claude walks away, hand up high and waving.

"Tch." Hilda clicks her tongue. "Don't know what that man's thinking half the time." She crosses her arms, looking at Marianne as if Marianne was always part of the conversation. "Usually I can tell what men want, but whatever he wants must be plain nonsense. If he was as much of schemer as he thinks he is, he wouldn't constantly be showing his hand. Right Marianne?"

"Oh...uh...right." Marianne felt pressured to agree with Hilda, but deep down she feels that Claude is more ambitious than he lets on. He's not fooling around for the sake of fooling around, he's looking for a reaction. But to say those feeling out loud would mean Hilda asking her to elaborate, which would force her to continue the conversation. So Marianne keeps her suspicions to herself.

"I have the food."

"Agh!"

Hilda jumped when she heard Byleth sneak up behind her. Both her and Raphael has platter of food so large that Hilda can no longer distinguish the separate pieces inside. Looking at it reminds her of a food contest at a fair her brother joined in years ago. Unfortunately she saw her famous heroic brother who was paraded across the lands throw up rainbows afterwards in the least heroic fashion. 

"Sorry. Here you go." Byleth deftly placed the platters on the table and sits across from Hilda and Marianne. Raphael then gives Byleth her platter as he sits down next to her. Meaning that Hilda will have to listen to Raphael's chewing and complimenting of food up close and personal.

* * *

An hour later, miraculously, they all finished their food. While they were intimidated by the amount, Hilda and Marianne did enjoy it, so Raphael wasn't wrong in guessing their favorites. They don't have to worry about going hungry if they skip dinner just for today. Byleth finished her food without anyone noticing.

"Woah, I just cannot get tired of this food! I wish I could eat here all the time." Raphael stands up and stretches. "But first, I better work off this meal first. See ya professor. Say Hilda, do you wanna come work out with me?" 

Hilda blanched at thinking of working a sweat for even single minute, but with how much she ate she knew she couldn't just sit all day. Plus despite being a little grossed out by his loud eating she does want to get along with Raphael, who could do lots of favors for her later. Holding back her tears she stands up to follow him. "S-sure...oh professor, why don't you check out the gardens. There's lots of pretty plants there." Before Hilda walks away she gives Marianne a pat on the shoulder. "Talk to you later Marianne." And with that she grudgingly follows Raphael to jog across the monastery.

Afterwards Byleth and Marianne both stand up from the table. Before Byleth follows Hilda's advice she remembers to say farewell to Marianne. "I'll see you later Marianne."

"O-oh uh-it was...nice to eat with you professor." Marianne then briskly walks away before she's forced to socialize again. 

The walk from the dining hall to the greenhouse isn't far. On the way though she does notice Leonie walking with Jeralt. As they pass by each other Byleth greets her student. "Hello Leonie." Jeralt waves at her, but it seems that Leonie is too engrossed in talking to Jeralt to pay attention to her actual professor. Like with most things, Byleth does not mind the cold shoulder, and continues walking.

"Leonie, Byleth just tried to talk to you," Jeralt scolds Leonie.

"What? Oh, sorry, I wasn't paying attention." Leonie's apology wasn't quite as sincere as it probably should be. Personally speaking Leonie would much rather have Jeralt teach her than his kid, who doesn't seem to even have a mind of her own. The last few days when she appeared in the monastery she'd just walk around with a blank stare. It's actually a little creepy, like she's an undead monster in those scary stories her friends would joke about while they hunted in the forest.

"You'll get used to her. This is the first time she's been around so many people. Give her time." Jeralt was saying this to console Leonie as much as it was to console himself.

"I know you want me to like her, which is fine. She does look pretty strong, and I think maybe we could be friends. But as my teacher...I don't know. You make it sound like she has zero experience teaching, so why did they make her a professor and not you?"

"..." The honest answer would be, "I don't know," but Jeralt would prefer to keep his doubts to himself. He's dug enough of a grave for Byleth that he doesn't need to dig even deeper.

* * *

Soon as Byleth entered the greenhouse she saw Claude crouching down and looking at the carnivorous plants. "Hello Claude," she greeted.

"Ah, Teach! Funny to see you here!" Claude stands up straight and gave her his normal smile. "I was actually planning on showing you around the greenhouse. Look over here." He points at one corner of the greenhouse, where there was plots separated into neat little squares. All the plants in each plot looks like they were just planted. "This is the student and teacher garden. You can use one to plant your own assortment of herbs, veggies and flowers." He then motioned Byleth toward one plot than had a cardboard sticking out that says "TEACH" on it. "Tadah~ I took the liberty of grabbing one for you. Here's some beginner seeds." He places a small bag carefully into Byleth's hands.

"...Thank you." Byleth doesn't know what else to say. No one outside of Jeralt gave her something like this. "Can you show me how to plant them?"

Claude beamed. He expected Byleth wouldn't react at all, so he was pleased that Byleth at least showed vocal interest. "Ah, so the student has already become the teacher. So first thing you gotta do is..."

A few minutes later Byleth has all the seeds planted. As she stands up Claude continues talking about how the garden works. "Every day one of the students is in charge of watering, so you don't have to worry about that. Which student waters each day is on the calendar attached to the door behind us. I'd look through it to have an idea of where students are on certain days. Plus these plants are inundated with magic, so it doesn't take long for them to grow. These babies would usually take a couple of months to grow, but here it'll take only a week. Plus _plus,_ you can also do other things to it to make the harvest even more exciting, like sprinkling Pegasus blessing on it, but that's pretty expensive..."

"..."

"You could also try to feed it sweets like Lysithea did with hers." Claude chuckles. "She was sooooo mad when I caught her literally sprinkling her plants with sugar. You'd think her being a magical prodigy would mean she'd try, you know, using her cool magic to buff up her plants, but I guess being a magical prodigy doesn't come with any experience in gardening." Claude points to the plot with Lysithea's name on it. "That's her plot by the way. You know, now that I look at it those sprout do look pretty small and cute, just like their mom. Don't tell her I said that because you might have one less student to teach the next day." 

"..."

Claude then starts pointing at her other students' plots. "This one's Marianne's. She not the cleanest gardener, but sometimes I catch her talking to the plants sweetly like she does with animals, so just because she has a hard time caring for them doesn't mean she's not trying. Technically you're not allowed to touch other people's plants but since you're our professor you could probably get away with helping her spruce them up."

"..."

"This one's Raphael. He actually takes great care of his plants, but I bet its because all of them are veggies he'll give to the chef to cook for him when they're ready. Though I also bet that the moment they are ready, he'll just pull them out and eat them right then and there. The one next to him is Leonie's. She used the seeds that were going to be thrown out because they weren't up to snuff, so we'll see how she puts them to good use. She's good at not wasting material, so I'm not too worried. Then there's Ignatz's. I don't think one of his hobbies is gardening, but I bet his will look the nicest when it's fully grown. He's got a good eye."

"..."

"This one is Hilda's. There's nothing in it now, but she promised she'll toootally work on hers later. So either this plot will be empty for the whole year or some boy is going to want to do her a favor and do all the planting. In that case as the official teacher's pet of the Golden Deer I'll do the right thing and tell you who's doing the favor. Because you know, using other people's plots is not allowed in this good greenhouse." 

"..."

"...Oh! Almost forget Lorenz. His is also empty, but unlike Hilda its not because of procrastination. Its because he's a pri-its because he thinks as a noblest of nobles he simply cannot get his hands dirty. I tried to convince him to plant roses so he can replace the fake one on his chest, but then he went on this long tangent about how roses are one of the harder flowers to grow and maintain and why in the world would I suggest it as a beginner plant and yadayadaya." Claude rolls his eyes. "He sounds like he knows soooo much about gardening, but doesn't even try it himself! I bet its because he doesn't want to embarrass himself, which is a little sad you know?"

"..."

"As his teacher you should probably convince him to get out of his comfort zone. Tell him how touching the same soil as 'the commoners' touch helps you better understand them and thus be better at your noble job or something. Just a suggestion to, you know, broaden his horizons."

"...What about yours?"

"Hmmmm~?" Claude tilts his head, acting coy. He was waiting for Byleth to ask.

"What are you planting?"

Claude's grin grows wider. "Oh, little ol' me? Nothing much." He points at his plot, conveniently right next to her own, where some are the plants are already in bloom. Byleth can tell what some of the plants are, because Jeralt warned her not to be in contact with them in their travels. One of them was a kind of berry that caused temporary paralysis. As a kid she stuffed it in her mouth thoughtlessly before Jeralt realized what it was. She didn't notice how sick she got until she could no longer move her legs a week later. Another was a grass-looking root that, when in contact with skin, will cause the skin to turn green and lead to nauseating pain that eventually spreads to the head. Byleth wonders if Claude's even allowed to grow these in such proximity to the other students'.

"These plants are poisonous," Byleth declared. For once, she could tell Claude's grin reaches his eyes as he pretends to be shocked.

"Poisonous!? Well I had no idea! I planned on using these plants for purely...medicinal reasons." He winks.

"...I look forward to seeing what medicinal reasons you plan on using them for," Byleth says.

Claude couldn't help but giggle. "Teach, once we get to know each other better, I promise I'll tell you aaaall about my plans later." He straightens his back and walks to the other side of the greenhouse. "Aside from the student and teacher garden, these other areas are for plants used by the church, or at least coveted by her royal archbishopness herself. Some of them are for the nurse, some of them are endangered species or basically extinct, and some of them are just neat to look at. Let me show you this one plant I was looking at earlier, the one that looks like it has wyvern fangs..."

"..."

* * *

By the time Claude finished showing her around the greenhouse the sun was nearing its end. "Time sure flies on days off," Claude sighs. "I suppose I should go eat again and tuck myself into bed like the good student that I am. You want to head to the dining hall with me?"

Remembering the heavy lunch she had earlier, she shakes her head. "No, I think I'll go back to my room. Thank you for showing me around the greenhouse."

"...No problem Teach. See you later," Claude says, with that smile she saw the first night they met. A calculated smile that never quite reaches his eyes.

"Take care Claude."

"You too Teach."

Byleth turns around. She can feel him continue to look at her for a couple of minutes before he heads to the dining hall.

_Such a strange child. Hard to gauge what exactly he wants._

Sothis' voice pipes up in her head as she closes the door to her room, despite her earlier declaration that she wouldn't talk again today.

_Then again, all of our students seem to be quite...unique. I can only hope they'll all pull it together for the mock battle. Otherwise...they...might not even reach...their first...zzzz..._

As Byleth changes into her nightclothes she can hear the girls gentle snores, lulling herself to sleep. 


End file.
